blistering heat pavement going in circles, productiveness, tiny baozi! pirated DVDs, and job prospects

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2nd post
monday
2 june 2008

Productive day, thus far, and it's only going on 5pm!

I tend to wake up earlier than any of my roommates. And lay in bed for an hour or two trying to decide how badly I want to get up and start the day. I usually wake up between 6-8am, and am usually showered and downstairs checking my email by 9ish.

Today was about the same. But I desperately needed to do laundry. There's a washing machine here, costs 10 kuai , but, like most of China, no drier. So I had her help me figure out the washer, and while my clothes were washing I went to the supermarket to buy some things.

And it turned out to be a rather long trip.

First, I needed to take money out of the bank. There's a Bank of Beijing right before the Wu Mart supermarket, so went there. But the ATM wouldn't take my card. So I started looking for Bank of China, which I know from past experience works.

I looked across the 6 lanes of traffic to see a Bank of China on the other side. And by the "other side, I mean I was standing next to the Poly Theater at Dongsi subway station, and the Swiss Hotel is across a roundabout and 6 lanes of traffic. Which wouldn't be an issue, crossing the street, except that in China many of the streets have fences dividing the traffic, which pedestrians can't cross.

No problem, I happen to know there's a tunnel that goes under the street to the other side. Whoops. Construction on the tunnel.

So I go down the subway tunnel, past all the Xinjiang sellers on their blankets, waaaay down, and realize that even though I'm there, I would have to pay my 2 kuai fare to get to the other side.

I decide I'm smart enough to figure it out without paying for a subway ride I'm not going to take. Sooo back to surface I go.

I then cross the street no less than 4 times... going around the roundabout. I am usually okay with traffic, but this was harrowing. And it was the middle of the day and it was hot.

Finally get to Swiss Hotel, get to Bank of China, get my cash, and leave.

And think, duh, Molly, why didn't you go back down Gongti and take the pedestian/bike flyover? Ah, retrospect.

So I walked down and took the flyover, and walked back in the direction I'd just come to get to the damn supermarket.

My list of things to buy included:

--small packets of tissues - not usually toilet paper in bathrooms - gotta carry your own.
--padlock for the cupboards in the room so I can lock up my laptop when I'm not there.
--hangers, since all of my clothes will be hanging from bunkbeds in my room to dry
--shampoo, as i only brought travel size and don't mind using shampoo also as my body wash
--scissors

I enter the Wu Mart... and it's not several stories high like it looks, it's one floor. I find the cheapest tissues and move on to shampoo. Okay, you know how you can stand and stare a wall of shampoo because there are too many choices? Okay, now imagine that wall.... all in a script that means nothing to you. Most of the bottles at least indicated whether they were shampoo or conditioner in English. I finally picked a 14 kuai orange bottle of Shek and moved on.

Unfortunately, there were no hangers or scissors or padlocks, and since the original purpose was to find hangers for my currently washing clothes, I considered the Wu Mart a failure of sorts. Plenty of food! But I'd rather eat out. And with no fridge, even buying yogurt becomes a buy-as-you-drink sort of thing.

I bought a big jug of water though and came home tired and put out. Howeeeever, on the way home, I saw another market. I didn't want to stop with my massive bottle of water, so came home and unloaded. Checked my email. And went back out.

As soon as I walked downstairs through that door, I knew I would find what I was looking for. It's a massive underground labryth of vendors, not unlike Yaoshou or Silk Market in set up.... but worlds different! First of all, I wasn't harrassed AT ALL. I think they were actually surprised to see a foreigner there. Or they weren't surprised at all - haha!

First store I entered had a little bit of EVERYTHING. Stationary among tennis raquets among HANGERS among SCISSORS among notebooks among lanyards among ink for stamps among a whole host of other things, up to the ceiling, in a 10x20 space. Picked up a notebook, lanyard, scissors, and 8 wire hangers, for the bargain price of 14.5 kuai, or like 2 dollars.

Walked on. Lots of stalls with shoes and cloths, some jade, and lots of electronics, toys, and tools. Thus, I found my padlocks.

And then I had to find my way out of the maze and back out to the street. Took me a while, but I found out that there are emergency exit stickers on the floor pointing the way out. Came out at a completely different exit, though.

Good to know that's there. If I ever need anything random, or just shoes or bags or clothes were I won't be pressured into buying, I'll be back.

***

I found one of my favorite street foods for breakfast - baozi! Usually baozi, which is a steamed bun filled with a number of different options, are large. Like the size of my fist. But yesterday I saw the tiny ones! And had to try them today.

These xiaolongbao, or "small dragon baozi" are tiny, like the size of the circle made by your thumb and pointer when making the "okay" and sign. And there are 10 of them in a set. So I got one "long" of the tiny bits of culinary awesomeness, filled with pork, for 4 kuai, or roughly 50 cents. Ah, heaven in a plastic bag!

The DVD selection at the hostel is horrible. There really ISN'T must selection. So I went and bought two pirated movies. They're the fancier kind of bootleg, with actual covers and plastic casing, so they were 10 kuai each - or like $1.25. I bought "Juno" mostly because it's an awesome movie and I was thinking about the convo with D yesterday, and "The Savages" which I've heard of, but haven't seen. But how can you go wrong with Phillip Seymore Hoffman and Laura Linney?

So tonight we will have at least a better selection!

And on that note, it's time to read some more, see if my clothes are dry, and go find more food. Because all I've eaten today is a banana for breakfast, the tiny baozi for brunch, and I just had an apple. Oh, and an orange juice. And lots of water. But fruit and some xiaolongbao aren't enough!

Also! I got ahold of Michelle, who works for Expertise and who offered me a job working in the office recruiting. I'm meeting her for lunch on Wednesday and going to the office to talk business. I would rather do that, by far, than teach English. Recruit foreigners, talk to them when they get here, introduce them to Beijing - and get paid! Well, maybe I should see what the pay is before I get tooo excited 😊

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Comments

[Hmm]

hmm?
Where are the pictures? Pictures of those packets of tissues, xiaolongbao, 6-lane traffics, Xinjiang sellers..etc? need pictures! :)